


Cracked Mirror

by Engineer104



Series: I Would Write 500 Words (and I Would Write 500 More) [10]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Academy phase, Angst, Blood/Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, Gen, Kinda, War Phase, and no it’s not Felix, canon character death, you get two guesses who died in the making of this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22607530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104
Summary: Felix does not understand Hubert’s devotion to Edelgard.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Hubert von Vestra
Series: I Would Write 500 Words (and I Would Write 500 More) [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591699
Comments: 7
Kudos: 32
Collections: Those Who Drabble in the Dark





	Cracked Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> For the Felannie Fever Discord’s weekly drabble prompts: write a pair with no supports interacting. and thus i went with Felix and Hubert because...i thought they’d be Interesting?
> 
> ngl when i thought of this it was supposed to be a Crimson Flower with possible unrecruited Felix but alas it unfolded differently and Hubert died instead xP
> 
> but anyway enjoy!!

There’s something about how Edelgard’s vassal hovers over his charge that feels distinctly, sickeningly familiar to Felix. It’s like cold fingers creeping down his spine, like he’s seen this exact scene play out before. 

The red-haired girl their class just rescued - Felix can’t recall her name - speaks lowly to Edelgard in the middle of the training grounds, but it’s not the low timber of voices exchanging secrets that distract Felix from slicing a straw effigy. 

It’s Hubert, persistent as a shadow, if only he shrunk and shriveled in the sunlight of noon. 

“Why do you just stand there?” Felix demands before he can stop himself. “If you must lurk about, why not train?”

Hubert looks down his nose at Felix, eyes only just widening as if surprised to be address. His lips twist into the slightest sneer. “I’m not here to train,” he says.

“No?” Felix crosses his arms, narrowing his eyes; a part of him regrets starting this conversation, but the rest is morbidly curious enough to carry on. “Are you telling me mages don’t need to train?”

Hubert chuckles darkly. “Perhaps we do,” he says, “though magic is more a thing of mental fortitude. Now say your piece and leave me be.” He waves a hand, a dismissal. 

A flicker of irritation hisses under Felix’s skin, galled at the gesture - the irony of being on the receiving end is not lost on him - but he bites it back and wonders, “What did she do to earn this blind loyalty of yours? What about her makes you one of those fools who can’t think for themselves?”

Hubert’s spine stiffens as he eyes him with a slight frown. “I should’ve known a boy from Faerghus would ask such as that.”

Felix’s hand tightens on his training sword, anger rising within him. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

“Nothing uncouth, obviously,” Hubert practically simpers, his thin lips stretched in a malicious smile. “Only that surely even you must know not all loyalty is blind, and not all men who follow another are fools.” His eyes flicker towards Edelgard, past her to land, harder than steel, on the girl with dark red hair. “Surely even in Faerghus they have some of those.”

* * *

Felix’s blade drips with blood, his chest rising and falling with each aching gasp for air. His right side burns, acrid smoke from the scorched fibers of his coat scalding his throat and making it even harder to breathe. But energy - the  _ drive _ \- to fight, to stay on his feet despite the barrage of magic against him courses through him anyway. 

Hubert’s face swims in the mirage of air between them. Blood slides down his cheek where Felix cut him, stark against his pale skin, and for a heartbeat they stand on opposite sides of a fissure in the battle, sizing each other up.

“I see you have found your loyalty after all, Fraldarius,” Hubert observes. “What else would inspire you to fight to the last?”

“Your death,” Felix snaps. He raises his sword and charges, a yell tearing from his throat. 

And without the advantage of range, Hubert falls to his sword. 

He lies on the ground clutching a gushing wound on his side, pale green eyes almost white with fury. Felix stands over him, breathing hard and just beginning to feel his skin smarting where dark magic burned him. 

But the hatred for the man at his feet burns even more powerfully. “You would condemn so many people to death for your so-called emperor’s cause?” Felix snarls. “Is that what your loyalty drives you to do?”

“And what of y-you,  _ Your Grace _ ?” Hubert snarls, blood and saliva dribbling from his lips. “How many have you slain in your king’s name?”

Felix’s new, unwanted title lands like a curse on his ears, but he resists the urge to flinch. 

“It is no matter,” Hubert says, his eyes drooping closed as the strength leaves his body. He coughs, in the midst of his death throes, before musing, “We are not so different, are we?”

Felix scoffs, “Your loyalty got you killed. Mine...will help me survive.”

His words fall on dead ears, but Felix doesn’t care. The thrill of battle - and a purpose that drives him more than the pursuit of strength - draws him further into Enbarr. 

**Author's Note:**

> HMM writing this kinda makes me think Hubert has more in common with Felix than with Dedue funnily enough, especially extending the Mirroring to their fathers’ positions? well okay maybe it is a stretch but it’s my fic end note and i’m gonna get meta if i want!
> 
> also wow i wrote a fic with Felix with no mention of Annette! crazy
> 
> hope you got some enjoyment or some other emotion besides disgust from it! let me know what you thought! <3


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